


force at play

by historicandgay (dannylawrence)



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot, some ghosts just don't know how to mind their own business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 17:23:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12137415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dannylawrence/pseuds/historicandgay
Summary: Over the decades, the Queen Mary has become filled to the brim with varying spirits and ghosts. Most of them are tired and prefer to keep away from the living. Most of them, that is. On one fateful trip, a young Ryan Bergara gets more than he predicted when a nosy ghost ends up seeing the future he could have with a certain skeptic, if only Ryan could just, ya know, believe in ghosts."Everything always came together, perfectly so, whether you meant it to or not, whether you wanted it to or not, no matter how hard people tried to predetermine the answer to every aspect of life, there was always something more."





	force at play

Call him a sap, but he had always thought it was beautiful: the way lives intertwined and separated, creating wonderful and terrible nothings by mere seconds in a life. Everything always came together, perfectly so, whether you meant it to or not, whether you wanted it to or not, no matter how hard people tried to predetermine the answer to every aspect of life, there was always something more.

And yes, of course there had been the matter of needing work- needing stability, but if he wanted to take up fortune telling and prophecies in his spare time, what was the harm? Nothing too serious of course, there was still that constant need to gain respect and credibility, and what most thought of as cheap magic tricks never helped that too much. But hey, it was a family tradition, passed down from... from.. well, from some where. Guess even in the afterlife his memory was still just as shitty. Ah well.

It was stupid, really. He hadn't even been a passenger on the goddamn Queen Mary. He had just been trying to do his fucking job, that was all. He never got paid enough for that shit anyways. Life on the Curacoa had been a crowded, never ending hell hole, and he thanked God it was over. Besides, there were worse ways to spend eternity than on a ship like this one. And well, technically, he supposed he was a part of the Queen Mary now. He just still wishes his joining the new ship had been on better terms. On bad days he could still feel the cold panic that had hit him so suddenly and painfully he felt like he couldn't breathe before he had even begun sinking down quickly towards the propellers of the larger boat, could still hear the endless screams, he could still feel the- well. Anyways. That was then and he was stuck here so there was no point dwelling on it anyhow. Boats are tough. Enough said.

All things considered life was actually pretty nice on the Queen Mary. There was definitely never a loss for company, that was for sure. In fact, regardless of the living on board, it was pretty damn crowded. Where do you even begin?

For starters, there were the other crew members of the Curacoa, most of them just stayed down in the lower levels, preferring not to be disturbed. He wondered why, being dead-but-not-really was dull enough, why add solitude into the mix? Might as well have some fun with it. Then there was the Captain, Edgar Britten, kind of an asshole if you asked him. Walking around like he still ran the place, _you're dead, douche bag, get over yourself_. Little Jackie, Sarah and Jeremy, near the pool. Oh, the lesbians were down there too, one from the 30s and one from the 60s, weird time gap, but hey, through death all things are possible, that's the saying, right? Grumpy, another asshole and super temperamental, best not to bother him, the gay World War 2 soldiers- Jack and Terrance, great guys, Door 13 guy- John. He didn't wanna think about him too much. William Stark, cutest ghost there if you asked him, not the brightest of the bunch admittedly, but there was more to life than intelligence, or afterlife he supposed. Anyway, you could do worse than spending a Saturday night at the bar talking to William, not that the guy drank much after _that_ , though. Still, he was cute. Where was he? Oh yeah, there were a shit ton more of them on there, but that's the long and short of it.

Aside from spending the rest of all time socializing with whoever wasn't a complete asshole of a ghost, he could do some.. other stuff too. He didn't know if it was because he practiced prophecy in his life or if it was just by some insane happenstance, but in death, when time became less than nothing and everything slowed to a crawl but at the same time sped up impossibly, the past and future of the living revealed themselves in magnificent and overwhelming waves. And in death, you didn't need to worry about paying the mortgage or buying food or finding a home, he was free to focus on what he loved. So he indulged himself, most of the time a simple touch on the arm or face and he could see everything about them. Who they were, where they would go, what they would do. It was beyond fascinating, and if all it did was spook them a little bit, why shouldn't he?

For the most part he never interfered with them too much, he was there to see the future, not change it. Really, he promised. He just happened to find Ryan Bergara interesting. Sue him.

The kid was really young, that was the first thing that stuck out to him. Not that it was surprising, most self-sufficient ghost hunting types were on the younger side. But Ryan had so much energy, so much passion, to be honest it was kind of impressive. He walked into the boat with confidence and ease that was so prominent he knew in a second he was faking most of it and trying way too hard at it too. The insults Ryan hurled didn't do much to him, a little annoying sure, but mostly it was just entertaining listening to him yell and shout until there was nothing else to say.

"Motherfucker" The boy shouted. _Wow. Very original._

"Coward."  _Debatable._

"This whole ship is bullshit."  _A fair argument. Not one I’d necessarily agree with. But fair._

There was something about him, the over the top dramatics of the boy, his light hearted and social voice, he radiated a need to communicate, to talk, to not be alone, more so than most he had seen. So yeah, he found him interesting. After the boy left, he figured he'd just let it go. There was no need for him to actually scare Ryan, no point, really. But as he leaned against the wall of the ship, almost exactly where the kid had been a few minutes ago, he thought that something just seemed off. It felt wrong, the over the top rudeness towards spirits and ghosts, so faked and desperate. As though acting less scared would allow him to really be so. Against his better judgement, he headed up to B 484.

Mostly he just wanted to get a reading on the boy, actually find out something about him. But, Ryan had been kind of annoying, so he would be too. And it's not like poking him in the face was ever going to kill him at any point, just annoy him a little while he could see who he was.

When he touched Ryan's face he was bombarded with images of different ways and directions his life would go. He could feel the fear creeping into Ryan, but it wasn't at the forefront, pushed back by a stronger determination not to feel the fear inside him. He saw a life where he continued like this, all that real emotion, anger and terror disguised as fake confidence and attitude. It wasn't actually that bad. But there was something else there- loneliness. Not just the fear of it, but the reality of it too. An aching want to just have someone be there. As if someone, anyone could stop that loneliness, even for a moment, he would allow himself to feel that fear, that anger and dread. He wouldn't have to hide it because there would be someone there with him. That was odd. He had a friend here with him on the ship- Alvin, he was pretty sure his name was? The other kid hadn't gotten that much of his attention. But he wanted someone more than whoever he was, apparently. Someone who would balance out that fear inside him, put him at ease.

_Damn. That's actually kind of sweet._

But the belief wasn't all the way there yet. It definitely had the potential to be, but it wasn't quite in motion. He touched Ryan’s face again. He saw a face- kind of large, bearded, wearing glasses, what was his name? He tried looking more, but it wasn't quite coming up clearly, maybe it was Brian? Ben? Biff? Bent? Wait, no, it was someone else now.

_Okay. Never mind then. That was weird._

He touched Ryan’s face one more time. Damn, this new one was tall. Quite a bit better looking, if he was being frank with himself. Oh. Yep. That- that was him. He didn't only see all that pent up emotion coming to the surface though, he saw happiness, endless beautiful moments of laughter and togetherness, he saw just how at ease the two were around each other, how Ryan laughed so much at everything the other one, _Shane?,_ said, as if he had been waiting his entire laugh for a real, consistent reason to smile and now that he had one, he couldn't stop. He saw arguments over things that could not matter less but gave so much frustration and happiness to both of them. He saw terror and comfort. He saw love.

_They're beautiful._

If he could only just give Ryan that one little push to really believe in all of it. He knew it was dangerous and risky to get too involved. Humans could be even more temperamental than ghosts. Wild and unpredictable in even the best of circumstances, but damn it. Just this once.

He poked Ryan’s face. Nothing. Shit. This was going to take a while, wasn't it?

When Ryan woke up he was still trying to think of anything that would be just the right amount of paranormal activity to get Ryan’s belief in motion, but wouldn't, like, give definitive proof to the entire world that ghosts were real, cause he had enough crap on his mind without that, thank you very much.

Poking him hadn't done all that much. Something he couldn't dismiss as a gust of cold air, seeing is believing, after all. Water! That was it. He would turn the sink on. Ha. Beat that, skepticism. He was a genius.

He turned the sink on and they turned on the camera. Close but still nothing. Maybe if he just thought about it or- No. Nope he was just going to brush his teeth. He walked in front of Ryan next to the table on top of the sink. He looked kind of spooked but besides that there was nothing except that continued repression.

_Fucking Goddamn It!_

He threw his arms up in defeat and slammed them back down, accidentally knocking over a toothbrush on the table.

He noticed Ryan go completely still, and couldn't help the quickly growing hope in his chest. He reached out and touched Ryan’s hand and finally saw clearly.

He smiled.

* * *

 

Some 8 years later Ryan came back. He had quite a few more people with him, but all it took was a glance to see Shane, so his name was Shane, right there by his side. He kissed William goodbye, his hand quickly resting on the other man's wedding ring, muttering a quick goodbye and telling him he needed to check something and rushed toward the two.

He followed them throughout their short stay, watching them look around the ship, attempting to invite spirits that would, himself excluded, much prefer to mind their own business. But most of all he saw them laugh. He saw that happiness in Ryan finally come through.

A quick touch told him Shane wasn't quite as invincible as he appeared to be, there was a clear sense of fear from him, not quite to the level of his companion, but still.

Ryan apologized for his taunts, which while unnecessary, was plenty appreciated. He noted that Shane, despite his claims, stayed up the entire night with Ryan, laying close by, listening for any signs of distress from the smaller boy.

When they left in the morning, he knew this time it was doubtful they would meet again. Not that they had ever really met in the first place, but still, he thought they had a good relationship and he was, as Ryan so eloquently put it, his “ghost father”. And he always would be.

Looking at them leave the boat he knew he had been right about one thing. They were beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long ass time since I've tried writing fanfiction rip, so here's hoping it turned out okay, feel free to tell me what you thought and I hope you liked it! (This idea came about after talking with ghostwheeze about the infamous Toothpaste Incident, and once I thought of this I couldn't stop thinking about it)


End file.
